The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 97

“Sure,” I say, grinning at him and heading for the door, eager to see what the seamstress did to my uniform to make it fit better. Rafe starts to strip off his shirt as I pull the door open, but I’m a little shocked to see Jesse standing right there, waiting for me.

He grabs me by the wrist and tugs me out of the bathroom, snicking the door shut behind me. “You have a guest, Mr. Clark,” he says, his voice half devious and half angry. “Who is asking for you in particular.”

My eyes go wide as I follow Jesse’s gesturing hand towards there door, where I burst into a grin to see the seamstress here in the flesh, a black box in her hands.

“Oh, hi!” I shout, scurrying over, excited.“Hi!” she says, beaming at me, “I’m so happy to see you! I made some modifications, but, um…” her eyes drift over to Jesse as she bites her lip.

“Oh, don’t worry about him,” I say, flapping a hand in his direction as I take the box from her hands and head for my nook. “Come over here! Thank you so much for bringing these up yourself! What’s your name? I’m Ariel –“

“Ariel!” Jesse gasps, horrified, and both the seamstress and I stop short in our tracks, our eyes going to him.

“Oh, sorry,” I say, grimacing at my cousin a little as I resume my steps. “I forgot to tell you, Jesse – she kind of…figured it out yesterday.”

A slow smile spreads on the seamstress’s face as she looks between my cousin and me. “Oh, a secret within a secret, is it? I love those.”

“Ari,” Jesse groans, covering his face with his hands and turning away from me, his shoulders shaking a little bit. “You can’t do this shit to me – and are you serious!? Someone else figured it out!?”

“Who else knows?” the seamstress asks, stepping closer to me as I put the box on my bed and start to unpack it.

“Just my brother, obviously, and our friend Ben,” I say with a shrug, smiling at her. “Though he had less direct evidence than you –“

“Ariel!” Jesse snaps, storming over to us, “stop telling her shit! We have no idea who this woman is!”

“Jesse!” I scold, glaring at him. “You’re being very rude to our guest, and obviously she is trustworthy – she would have told someone by now if she was going to! And she wouldn’t have taken such time to make modifications to my outfit! Thank you for those, by the way,” I say, turning my smile on her again.

“You’re welcome,” she replies, sketching a little bow with a half smile on her face, though she does glance anxiously back at my cousin.

Jesse sighs and narrows his eyes at the young woman, crossing his arms and looking her up and down. “While my cousin has a point,” he says, frustrated, “I would like some further assurances that you can be trusted, ma’am.”

“Oh?” she says, and I blink a little as the seamstress tucks her hands coyly behind her back and raises her chin at Jesse, stepping closer. “And what kind of assurances would you like, sir?”

I go a bit still as I watch them.

“Well,” he murmurs, his voice deepening as he looks down at her. “Your personal information, to start. As well as any leverage you’d like to hand over so that I can exact revenge if you blow my cousin’s cover.”

“Leverage, highness?” she says, a little smirk forming on her lips. “Why, we’ve just met. Don’t you think you need to earn something like that?”

Jesse laughs a little, his eyes focused on hers, and my jaw drops when I see him take a step closer, barely a hand’s breadth between them now. Because they are flirting.

“Earn it, claim it,” Jesse murmurs, raising a bold hand and twisting a stray curl of her auburn hair around his finger before tucking it back behind her ear. “Either way, we can start with your number, unless we’re supposed to use messenger pigeons to contact people in this dank castle -”

“Oh my god,” I burst out, staring between them. “Jesse!” I step forward and smack him, hard, on the arm. “Would you stop!?”

“Ari!” he shouts, laughing and taking a step away. “I am working here to protect you –“

“Oh, you so are not,” I growl, stepping in front of the seamstress. “There is one girl in this whole castle who knows about my secret, and I’d quite like her to be my friend, so if you can please stop hitting on her –“

Jesse’s mouth drops open at my accusation and the seamstress, behind me, bursts out laughing.

“It’s all right, Ari,” she says, putting a hand on my arm and turning me towards her. “I’m pretty much the only young woman working in this castle – I know how to handle myself around these boys.” I grin at her as she rolls her eyes.